I just sent you an email. I looked at your want list and did not see any there, I do notice you want peonies. You have reached the right person. Send me an email and I can send pictures of which ones I am diving. flowersbytheriver2@comcast.net This post was edited by illinoisdoglover on Fri, Jun 14, 13 at 22:29

Re this particular cat, then to roses. This is Twitchit cat, who hobbled up the hill to our solar porch, collapsed with a broken left front leg. She'd been dragging her paw so long that there was no fur left on the top of it. She could (I think) hear then. Probably not well. The leg healed in a sort of odd orientation and she now struts like a bulldog. It's that past four months that she's been more cautious as to where she sleeps and prefers to sleep with her tail over our feet. (So she can tell when we are moving?) I've been trying to teach the herd to use a second door from the kitchen; but with Twitchit, I couldn't get even an earflick as I called her. Only when my shadow crossed her did I get attention. So we'll have to learn that underfoot is by her choice and she has a reason for not responding to "Move!" Our original roxburgii double came with the 200 year old farm house. It bloomed spring and a little in fall. It was at that time shaded by some massive silver maples. Well, (roses can smile at this) the maples have been wiped out by a tornado, by the loss of a sugar maple and by old age and the sunlight situation is much better. The original plant is still going, but now that there's more sun, it's suckering tentatively. It really did wait for more sunlight to move into new territory. One of its suckers in now down in the species garden in really crappy clay. It blooms right on cycle with its parent even though it's usually 5 degrees colder there during winter cold. I do try to improve the soil for the older one. It doesn't really show any perceptible appreciation. The one thing that was really interesting this spring was that we had a wet winter, and there was NO dieback at the ends of any stems. I had come to expect that dieback every winter, regardless of temperature. But this winter, it kept all of its growth and bloomed everywhere.' The single form of roxburgii is a different story for me. It's down in the species bed and it hasn't bloomed yet. Stephen Scaniello tells me it takes time. It's been five years. I also have the bald hipped version of roxburghii down there and it managed a few blooms in year three. Same soil as the other one in the species bed. I talk to them a lot down there. Right now I'm not sure the single is as close to the double roxburghii as the nomenclature suggests. And there's one genejockey paper that doesn't have them close. But the plants have different leaves and different growth styles...someday, I'll be able to compare blooms and bloom times. Right now, they are just interesting to watch. To get bloom, I think age may trump sunlight as my slower ones are in full day sunlight except for shade just before dusk.

Thank you all! I've been pretty frugal in my quilting over the last several years and have only bought fabric at garage/rummage sales so I don't necessarily end up with fabrics that I would walk into a store to buy, but as long as I don't just detest them, I buy them. The white/cream background fabrics on all of these were unusual fabrics, but they were ones that I had a lot of yardage in so they could be used as background fabrics for patterns that required lots of yardage for the background. Like another forum member said, (Sorry, I don't remember who) 'There are no ugly fabrics, just ones that have not found the right partners to dance with.' Hopefully I picked fabrics that are not awful together and fit the couples' style. The bow-tie one was hard because the couple registered mainly for board games and to have money donated to their honeymoon fund which didn't leave a lot of info to glean their style/taste from. The second one was challenging because the colors the couple registered for were orange, green, red, brown and eggplant - except not in purple but in blue. So I decided to use my 70's decorator fabric with the orange, green, brown in the background and then use the blue for the ribbon design. Now the hard part is to decide out of all the patterns on my 'some-day' list, what to do next?? I have a large amount of fabric with a black background that is a Mary Engelbreit design with teacups on it. My mind has been doing somersaults for months trying to figure out how to use it - what pattern and what other fabrics? Still not sure!

Oooooopppps!!!! I forgot to mention that MOST samples that are handed out are resined - which means that they have a higher resistance to staining - BUT - IF you leave a staining agent on a piece of Natural Stone long enough - it WILL stain. Also...some samples are NOT sealed either - and most stones that are installed ARE - so remember that as well when you all do your lemmon / ketchup / red wine / etc tests biggest thing I emphasize with MY clients (and anyone else that will listen) is that you HAVE to remember that spills and potentially staining substances should be wiped up ASAP - this will be your first line of defense in maintaining your countertops - especially if they are Natural Stone. definately do the testing for stain potential in the stones that you are considering - it makes total sense kevin